How Heavy Are Planes And How Do They Stay In The Air?

Kernersville, NC -- 7-year-old Cooper was looking to the skies when he asked this question, "How heavy are planes and how do they stay in the air?".

2 Wants To Know went to the Executive Director of the Piedmont Triad International Airport to answer Cooper's question.

Kevin Baker told us most of the planes that come into PTIA weigh about 100,000 pounds. But C-5's, those big planes that you see doing touch and goes at PTIA weigh up to 840,000 pounds--that's as much as 35 school buses!

Baker adds, "the engines put out a lot of thrust combined with the shape of the wing, which is shaped a little thicker in the front and thinner in the back with a curved section underneath. that's what creates the lift that lifts the plane up in the air."

If your child wants to see the inside of a plane up close consider going to the Greensboro Children's Museum. The kids can get right in the cockpit.